Modern Numismatics

Louis Golino

Louis Golino has been a collector of American and world coins since childhood and has written about coins since 2009. In addition to writing about modern coins and other numismatic issues for Coin World, he writes a monthly column for The Numismatist magazine and has written for other coin publications. In 2017, for “Liberty Centennial Designs,” in Elemetal Direct, he was presented with the Numismatic Literary Guild's award for best article in a non-numismatic publication. He is also a founding member of the Modern Coin Forum.

Eternal Sculptures Series Continues with Venus De Milo Coin

The obverse of the Eternal Sculptures coin honoring the Venus de Milo.

The reverse of the Eternal Sculptures coin honoring the Venus de Milo.

​When it comes to high-end, luxurious modern world coins, subject
matter is critical as it helps determine the design and how the coin
is produced. And while there are plenty of interesting topics depicted
on such coins, many of the best ones, as I have argued before, deal
with the 3 A’s: art, architecture, and astronomy, topics that all hold
great appeal for your columnist. Such coins combine gorgeous artwork
with themes that enrich the mind and expand one’s cultural and
scientific horizons.

In the realm of art, modern
numismatic issues have tended to focus mainly on famous paintings
and not as much on other types of art such as sculpture. But last
year Italian coin dealer Powercoin teamed up with Coin Invest Trust
and B.H. Mayer to launch an interesting new series called Eternal
Sculptures that highlights some of the world’s greatest and most
significant works of sculpture. The first coin depicted Italian
neoclassical artist Antonio Canova’s Psyche and Cupid. Having seen
this piece, I can attest to its beauty and high level of craftsmanship.

The second is now available for
pre-order with shipment expected around late April, and this time
the Venus de Milo, one of the greatest works of ancient Greek
sculpture, is the topic. This amazing marble sculpture, which stands
6 feet, 8 inches high, was made between 130 and 100 B.C. and is
believed to be of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty.
Experts think it is the work of Alexandros of Antioch, and the
statue was discovered in 1820 on the Greek islands, Milos by a
peasant and later sold to French explorers. It resides permanently
in the Louvre museum in Paris.

The statue is best known for its
two-missing arms and was promoted by the French in the 19th century
as “the epitome of graceful female beauty,” according to Wikipedia, despite the condition
in which it exists, which also includes a broken nose. Before it was
damaged, the statue showed Aphrodite holding an apple in one hand.

Like the previous coin in this series, the new issue is made of
two ounces of silver. Rather than have a large diameter, it is a
piedfort, with the additional weight in the thickness to enable it to
be struck in stunning high-relief using CIT’s Smartminting on both
sides, which respectively show the front and back of the upper portion
of the statue. In addition, it combines a special white marble-effect
on the design of the statue with a black proof background for maximum
contrast between design devices and the field and also sports an
intricate border. The mintage is 999 coins.